The Napa Movie Marathon Conclusion

Remakes and sequels almost always tend to bring out the best in filmmaking when it comes to pure mediocrity. There’s little originality and a strong feeling of “been there, done that”. Occasionally we get one that’s obviously had blood, sweat and tears poured into its creation as it rises above the flotsam of this category. Unfortunately, Meet the Fockers is not one of those types of sequels.

This sequel to the funny, but hardly classic, Meet the Parents finds the strangely named Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller in his “nebbish” mode…he only has two modes…this and “asshole”) and his fiancé Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo…who remains mostly scenery) gearing up for a weekend when Pam’s parents (returning Robert DeNiro and Blythe Danner) meet Gay’s parents (Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand). Toss in a return of Jinx the cat as well as a small yippy dog named Moses and a Byrnes’ grandchild named Jack Jr. whom grandpa is personally training for life and you’ve got the formula for hilarity.

Not.

The film is amusing at best and a mediocre retread of previously clichéd material at worst. It’s conservative versus liberal, W.A.S.P. versus Jews, Ben versus Bob all over again. And its yawn inducing. The film seems to exist for two reasons. First is the “look who we got to play his parents”. While Hoffman and Streisand may seem like inspired choices, they both look out of place (and I won’t get into the fact that they’re two Jewish actors playing what amount to Jewish stereotypes). Second are the inevitable double entendres and sex jokes that derive from the family surname. If there’s a saving grace, it’s that we’re well into the film before we hear of relatives named Dom Focker. The film goes to silly and predictable lengths as Greg and Pam try to hide the true nature of his parents from her parents while other bizarre bits come into play as if they’re repeating the plot of the first film at least in progression.

It’s worth a look-see if you found the first film funny…but I’ll admit this…this film has helped me decide where the original fits into my personal collection which I’m in the midst of pruning for various reasons. Anyone interested in a used copy of Meet the Parents? Stiller’s just been moved out of my circle of trust when it comes to funny comedies.

There’s no denying that Martin Scorsese is the greatest American filmmaker currently alive and still consistently making movies. Even his “weak” films remain interesting and great things to at least watch. His latest, The Aviator, is easily his best work since Goodfellas and easily reminds us why Scorsese is who he is.

The Aviator chronicles the life of Howard Hughes from the late 1920s and the making of Hell’s Angels until the mid 1940s and the first flight of what’s now more commonly known as “The Spruce Goose”. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Hughes, a man obsessed with so many things…but the one that seems most consistent is his obsession with flying. Of course, as obsessed with aviation as Hughes was, he was also obsessed with many other things that would eventually lead to a life of being a hermit locked away within his own delusions and paranoias. While the film doesn’t enter this later phase of Hughes’ life, it does get all the ducks in place.

There are barely any false notes in this film. The acting is wonderful (particularly Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn) and the look of the film is impeccable. Alec Baldwin and Alan Alda are essentially cast as the villains of the piece (playing the head of Pan Am and a corrupt Senator respectively) and they are the weakest links as far as characters are concerned (although you’ll also wonder why Ian Holm keeps showing up as a meteorologist in scenes that don’t really call for him to still be there), but they at least remain entertaining in their dimensionless ness. If there is major quibble at all, it’s the use of “name” actors in roles so minor that you have to wonder why they’re even in the film (I’m particularly thinking of Willem Dafoe and Brent Spiner). The film is also a bit on the long side, but you won’t really notice it.

Could tackling this subject of an American icon finally get Scorsese the Oscar he so justly deserves and has been robbed of many times? We’ll find out soon enough.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is an odd film, but I guess that’s what we’ve come to expect from director Wes Anderson. This time out, we’re following the adventures of a famous oceanographer who’s a bit down on his luck. After his best friend is eaten by a rare shark no one other than Steve has seen, Zissou embarks on a trip to find it again and kill it in revenge. At the same time, Steve meets a young man named Ned Plympton who may or may not be his son.

The film starts interesting and then gets a bit weird and vague in the middle before finally getting to its point in time for a great ending. By the time we get there, we realize the film has little to do with oceanography (although all of the cool CGI creatures are neat to look at) and everything to do with the concept of family and how life is affected by those we call family (for Steve it’s his crew).

Bill Murray heads an amazing cast that also includes Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum and Angelica Huston. If you liked Rushmore or The Royal Tennebaums, you’ll probably also like this film.

Well…that’s all for the movie watching during our trip to Napa. We leave for home soon (we arrive so late Wednesday night that it’s most likely early Thursday morning). When I get back, I’ll get back to work on my annual Best/Worst list of the year (after all the films we saw while in California, I need to make some adjustments). So until then…

Be seeing you.

The Napa Movie Marathon Part Three

Hey folks,

Before we get to today’s reviews, I just want to pass on the cancellation notice for Showtime’s original series Dead like Me. After two seasons and twenty-nine episodes, this wonderfully quirky show gives up the ghost. Luckily it went out with an episode that could be a good closer if need be as most “questions” seemed answered. It will be missed. Chalk another stupid move up to the cable network that can’t hold a candle to HBO in the original series department. It may even be time to cancel those Showtime subscriptions (what other purpose does the channel serve after their mishandling of both Dead like Me and Jeremiah).

Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera is one of those novels that I think everyone knows, but no one’s actually read…so they don’t really know the story (and quite frankly, having read it, it’s kind of boring). What they do know has either been colored by the 1925 Lon Chaney film, the 1942 Claude Rains film or Andrew Lloyd Weber’s lavish musical. It is this latter version that has finally reached the big screen and just in time since the movie musical is making a noble attempt at resurrection. Unfortunately, this film is more of a detriment to the genre.

Lloyd Weber’s stage show is the longest running show currently still running on Broadway. I tend to divide his work into two groups: the shows he wrote with Tim Rice (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita) and the shows he wrote without Tim Rice (all the rest). Of this second group, it’s a toss-up as to whether Phantom or Sunset Boulevard are the best…but when you’re in the company of over-produced spectacle like Cats and Starlight Express you’re not really playing on a scale of one to ten…it’s more like one to two. The stage version is all style and little substance as it boils down Leroux’s novel to some vague basics and crafts on a story that mirrors Lloyd Weber’s relationship with Sarah Brightman (who starred in the original version as Christine opposite Michael Crawford’s Phantom). I’ve always thought that Lloyd Weber really wanted to write this as a rock opera and got side-tracked (witness the title song that sounds like it’s from a rock opera while everything else is more melodic). And while some of Lloyd Weber’s music is very nice and a few of the lyrics also nice, on the whole it’s a rather over done affair.

The movie is a very faithful rendition of the stage show down to even incorporating elements that just look silly on film (like the candelabras that rise from the water during the boat journey to the Phantom’s lair). But, like the stage show, it’s all style and no substance. It’s an amazing film to look at. The sets, costumes, photography are all simply grand and amazing. But that alone doesn’t help weak material. And some of the choices are odd at best (during the Masquerade sequence where one of the lyrics mentions all the colors that can be found in costumes we only see black, white, gold and silver as no one is dressed in any other color).

The acting is actually pretty good as is the singing. Minnie Driver steals the film as opera diva Carlotta. She’s hysterical every time she’s on screen and lucky for her, she’s got plenty of sumptuous scenery to chew on. Gerard Butler does a decent job as the Phantom, but his motivations are lacking (you could drive the plot holes of Ocean’s Twelve through the character motivation holes in this film) and when we finally see him unmasked towards the end, we wonder why he bothered to wear one in the first place if all he was covering was a bad sunburn. Emily Rossum is a very appropriately young Christine with a beautiful voice. Her only problem is that while her singing is very passionate, her facial expressions are dead (I’ll assume this is due to pre-recorded tracks being dubbed over the on set vocals during editing…a normal practice for musicals).

I’d like to lay all the blame for this dull and stolid affair at the feet of the man who killed Batman, Joel Schumacher. But, quite honestly, aside from pacing issues and a screenplay by co-credit, I don’t think this film is his fault. While the film is simply entitled The Phantom of the Opera on screen, all of the advertising calls it Andrew Lloyd Weber’s The Phantom of the Opera. The man is also credited as producer and co-screenwriter. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s his fault. Like George Lucas, it’s a bit obvious no one knows how to tell this Napoleon “this doesn’t work”. What could have been another rung on the ladder to raising the movie musical out of the grave and back into the light where it belongs becomes two steps back. Anyone up for viewing Chicago again?

I love movies that make me cry. I mean really cry. Not just watery eyes, mind you, but honest to god tears streaming down my cheeks. It’s rare that movies do this. I can only think of a handful (including Glory, Schindler’s List, Field of Dreams and The Shawshank Redemption) and it has been about ten years since the last one. We can now add Finding Neverland to this list.

I’ve always been a big fan of J.M. Barrie’s classic “children’s” story Peter Pan. Regardless of the version, I always enjoy the story of the boy who wouldn’t grow up. So this film about Barrie’s creation of the story interested me quite a lot. I won’t get into much about the reality versus the film, but it truly is a lovely story. Barrie, suffering in a marriage that has turned somewhat dull and sour, strikes up a friendship with a woman and her children. Through them he finds his inner fire and begins to craft an amazing tale. While all this is going on, they must suffer the scorn and innuendo of their peers (and the woman’s mother-in-law) and the pressure of Barrie’s producer who is thirsty for another hit.

Johnny Depp proves once again that he is one of the greatest actors currently working in film today. The supporting cast includes Kate Winslet and Dustin Hoffman as well as a number wonderfully real boys who act just like real boys given their situation. The film is a marvel to look at as we travel back and forth between the “real” world and the way Barrie imagines things as he tells stories. This is an amazing film and one of the best of the year. To say more would spoil it.

Our last review for today is Sideways. This latest film by Alexander Payne (Election and About Schmidt) is a very nice character piece about two friends who take a week’s journey to California wine country to give one of them a send off the week before his wedding. Along the way they meet two women and well…I won’t spoil anything else. Suffice it to say that anyone who’s ever been friends with someone they really shouldn’t be friends with will probably really relate to this film. I know I did.

It’s the acting and the writing that really propel this film. Paul Giamatti plays Miles, the schlub of a writer/wine connoisseur, perfectly. He’s the driving force here and he really brings this character to life. Thomas Haden Church is also perfect as Jack, the friend who’s getting married and is treating this last week of freedom as if it’s his last week of freedom. Virginia Madsen is Maya, the woman who intrigues Miles and Sandra Oh plays her friend Stephanie who hooks up with Jack. Everyone does a great job in this slow boil film that really gets us into Miles’ head and takes us on a really nice journey of exploration with him. It deserves most of the accolades it has been getting.

Anyway…that’s all for today…next time…more movies…

Be seeing you.

The Napa Movie Marathon Part Two

Hey folks,

Welcome to the second installment in my Napa Movie Marathon. But first a slight correction. Jim Carrey’s character in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is named Count Olaf…not Count Orloff. Duh. That’s what I get for writing in the wee hours of the morning without checking things over…

Anyway…on to today’s reviews…

So…here are five words we should hear this year that I never in a million years ever thought (or wanted) to hear…

Academy Award Nominee Adam Sandler

Writer-Director James L. Brooks hits his fourth one out of the park (and that’s out of five…and the one he didn’t may actually be a flawed masterpiece assuming we someday get to see the original musical version of I’ll Do Anything). Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good As It Gets are all wonderful character pieces that blend drama and comedy with the same deftness that occurs in real life.

Spanglish (which I personally don’t like as a title) is about Flor (Paz Vega), a young Mexican single mother who emigrates to the United States and eventually winds up as the housekeeper to the Claskys, a rather dysfunctional family. Mother Deborah (Tea Leoni) is a manipulator who will do whatever she can to get what she wants…even if it means hurting the ones she loves (for example, she buys clothes for her daughter that are just a size too small in the hopes it’ll motivate her to lose weight). Father John (Sandler) is a top-rated chef who isn’t good at confrontation and is better suited at flying just under the radar (he doesn’t want a four star rating for his restaurant because it would mean selling out…he’s happy with less than perfection).

They have two children, Bernice (Sarah Steele), who tends to border on the cliché of lovable fat teenage girl, and Georgie (Ian Hyland), who doesn’t get enough screen time to really make himself known as a presence. And then there’s Evelyn (Cloris Leachman), Deb’s former songstress turned alcoholic, who also lives with them. Eventually Flor and her daughter Cristina (Shelbie Bruce) move in for the summer and Deb makes the bright young girl her pet project, much to the dismay of Flor…which motivates the young woman to finally learn English and speak up for herself.

This isn’t Brooks’ best work, but it’s kind of like watching a bad James Bond film…it’s still good (it’s a bad analogy, but what do you expect it’s 3am as I write this). There are plenty of subtleties even with the complete manipulation of the audience as Brooks knows how to pull heartstrings (almost in a Spielbergian kind of way…just without the lavish special effects). The acting, as one would expect from the list of previous films, is top notch and highly surprising…particularly in the case of Sandler (though if you had seen Punch Drunk Love you knew it was in him…you just didn’t expect it this soon after). Leoni plays the cold manipulative bitch to a T, yet still gives her plenty of depth without turning her into a cliché. But it is Vega in the end who carries this film and she does an amazing job.

The film is a bit long, but you shouldn’t notice that too much as it moves at a brisk pace. While it’s not quite As Good As It Gets (hey…look…a pun…of sorts), it’s much better than almost anything that’s come out this year and is definitely in my top ten of the year (you’ll be getting my annual list after New Year’s…I forgot to bring that file with me to Napa to continue working on it).

I love the work of Steven Soderbergh. I have pretty much since the beginning. But with the success of both Out of Sight and Erin Brockovich, Soderbergh now has the clout to go from slick Hollywood cash project to where he got his start Indie films with much ease. He has found a good balance of the two in Ocean’s Twelve, a sequel to a successful remake, in which the audience goes in expecting a fun and entertaining big budget popcorn flick and winds up watching a slow boil arty homage to European filmmaking. That’s not a bad thing…assuming you can open your mind to the experience a bit (although…judging from what I’ve been hearing…most people can’t).

Its three years after the first film and Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his friends have all settled nicely into their routines after ripping off Vegas casino owner Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). Now Benedict has found them all (in an amusing string of scenes that makes it feel like he’s in eleven places at the same time) and wants his money back plus interest. So Danny and his friends trot off to Europe to try and heist 97 million dollars in two weeks to pay Benedict back. Unfortunately, they find themselves in the middle of a game of cat and mouse between a beautiful Europol agent (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who has ties to Rusty (Brad Pitt) and one of the best burglars to ever grace the European continent and known only as the Night Fox (and played by Vincent Cassell).

From this plot we get the usually con artist trickery that tries to stay one or two steps ahead of the audience. But here, most of it fails miserably. What many will see as a weak and hollow attempt to cash in on a success, what they’re actually seeing is the greatest con of all. Much like The Hulk where Ang Lee sold an art film disguised as a comic book movie, here Soderbergh, Clooney and company trounce around Europe doing whatever they want and feeding it to us as if Francois Truffaut were pulling the strings. Some plot points go unexplained, characters get fleeting screen time with no real purpose (let’s face it…with all these people “in the gang” some are gonna get short shrift), big names make cameos in jokey roles that make little sense (if Bruce Willis needs to appear as himself, he should be in on the con…and why waste Eddie Izzard, Robbie Coltrane and Albert Finney in toss-away roles) and enough Hollywood in-jokes to make The Player blush (Julia Roberts playing Tess playing Julia Roberts comes to mind).

While I enjoyed this film, I can understand many being disappointed that it’s not as good as the original remake (there’s an odd phrase). It’s that rare sequel, like The Two Jakes and The Godfather Part III, that does its best trying to serve many masters and actually succeeding…if you can just see past the trees and look at the whole forest.

Well…that’s all for today. Next time…Finding Neverland and Sideways…

Until then…

Be seeing you.

The Palz of Lemony Snickett

Before we start today’s movie review, just a couple of quick bits of what I consider to be some cool news.

In March of 2005, Fox Home Video will be releasing a DVD box set of The Lone Gunmen. This comedic action spin-off of The X-Files only ran for 13 episodes before being unjustly cancelled. Not only will this set include the unedited version of the pilot episode (the one that aired in March of 2001 and featured a plot by terrorists to fly an airplane into the World Trade Center), but it will also feature the Season 9 episode of The X-Files entitled “Jump the Shark” that ties up all the loose ends from this series…thereby making this collection as complete as it can get (there will also be a few other extras included).

In a bit of related The X-Files news…Palisades Toys has jumped into the block action figure craze with a vengeance. Their new line of 2 ½ inch tall figures with 14 points of articulation and loads of accessories is called “Palz” and the first license has just started to hit stores. The first batch of figures based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer look amazing (I’ll have reviews when I’m back in CT) and are just plain cool. Palisades has 7 waves planned so far (one for each season) and the first wave consists of Buffy, Willow, Giles, Xander, Darla and The Master. Each figure has a “transformation” feature: turn the head around, switch out some body parts (included in the package) and presto you’ve got a new version of the same character (for example, Darla can go from human to vampire in a switch). There are also two exclusive figures of Angel and Vampire Buffy available online. A second series arrives in April and includes Oz, Cordelia, Buffy, Spike, Drusilla and Jenny Calendar. There will also be three packs of monsters (without the transformation features). The first pack arrives in April and includes The Anointed One, Marcie Ross and Der Kinderstod.

What does all this have to do with The X-Files? Well, that’s the second line of Palz that Palisades has licensed from Fox (and since they’re all the same size, Mulder & Buffy can go hunt Vampires and other monsters together while Angel and Scully get it on). The first series arrives in March of 2005 and includes Mulder, Scully, Deep Throat, Frohike, Grey Alien, Conundrum, Flukeman (who comes with his own Port-O-Potty) and Donnie Pfaster. There will be variant versions of Mulder, Scully and Donnie Pfaster. These will also feature loads of cool accessories, but no transformations. If you pick up extra Deep Throats and Frohikes you could probably make a Kolchak the Night Stalker Palz. A second series is in the planning stages and could include Scully, Mulder (both different from the previous releases), Cigarette Smoking Man, Langley, X, Eugene Victor Tooms, the Bat Thing, Marita Covarrubius, Krychek and Skinner (as in Assistant Director Skinner, not Principal Skinner from The Simpsons).

Meanwhile in other cool Palisades Toys news, they’ve picked up the license for Sesame Street and are planning at least two waves for 2005 to match their highly successful, yet about to come to an end line of figures from The Muppet Show. The first wave consists of Ernie, Oscar, Guy Smiley and the Two Headed Monster – which continues a pattern established by their other Muppet line of two popular characters, a fan favorite and an obscure one. There will be two versions of the figures available. Mass market retailers will be selling just the figure. Specialty outlets will be selling a set that includes the figure and a section of Sesame Street (with a bit of a cheated scale, but if you’ve seen Palisades Back Stage playset from The Muppet Show you’ll see how close they come). The section included with this group of figures will be where Oscar’s can sits (just in front of the fence to Big Bird’s nest). There will also be a Super Grover exclusive available at Wizard World Chicago Convention in March to kick off the line. With a phone booth, inter-changeable heads and a cloth trench coat Grover can change from super hero to mild mannered reporter in seconds (but don’t expect to make him plain old regular or “naked” Grover as the “G” is part of his chest sculpt and is not removable).

Meanwhile, look for the other Muppet line to wind down a bit as it switches to retail exclusives only. So far, Gonzo & Rizzo from Muppet Treasure Island, Scoutmaster Kermit and Uncle Deadly are the only figures to have found homes, but the entire cast of Veterinarian’s Hospital and Johnny Fiamma’s monkey pal Sal are sculpted and looking for homes. There may be a few more before the line officially ends sometime in 2005.

Lastly, in the block figure category…look for Art Asylum to continue their highly successful line of Minimates with more characters from Marvel Comics and Lord of the Rings as well as more C3 construction sets that feature DC Comics characters from various Batman incarnations as well as Justice League Unlimited. Rumor also has them teaming up with Dc Comics to create comic versions of the rest of the DC Universe and release them through DC’s own toy company DC Direct. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

And finally…with Playmates line from The Simpsons at an end, Mezco’s line from Family Guy has picked up the slack. The first six figures are already in stores and are a good mix of the family (Peter, Chris, Lois, Brian and two different Stewies). The second wave is even better (Rufus Griffen, Quagmire, Meg, Mutant Stewie, Naked Peter and Death as well as an S&M two pack of Lois & Peter) and the third wave just continues the crazy fun (Cristobel, Peter in drag, Brian’s cousin Jasper, next door neighbor and handicapped cop Joe, the Pope and Mayor Adam West – which will easily be the coolest toy of 2005). Can’t wait to see where else they take this line.

Obviously, I can’t wait to have a kid now just so I can play with all the cool toys I’ve been collecting (and we’re gonna be getting rid of some in the process that just aren’t worth keeping anymore – and obviously some will have to wait until Baby Faced Fenster is old enough to play without swallowing small removable parts – it’s a good thing that all these mini figures can fit into one shoe box and reside on a very high shelf until then).

Now…on to our first movie review from Napa…

I must admit to not being too familiar with the popular series of children’s books known as Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events beyond knowing they exist, they’re popular and they’re currently up to book 11. So I went into the film version a complete tabula rasa.

The titular Lemony Snicket is a writer who has been detailing the lives of the Beaudelaire orphans. There’s the eldest, Violet, who is good at inventing things. There’s Klaus, the middle child, who loves to read and has memorized every book he’s ever read. And then there’s the infant Sunny who loves to bite things. Unfortunately, Mr. Snicket informs us of the tragic death of their parents and the children are shipped off to live with their closest relative, Count Orloff (closest in the sense that he lives 37 blocks away…we’re never sure how the children are actually related to him).

Orloff is an actor along the lines of Master Thespian from the old Saturday Night Live sketches with Jon Lovitz. And he’s not just a bad actor, he’s a bad person. He’s only interested in the Beaudelaire fortune. So he sets about trying to kill the children so he can get the money. He’s foiled of course (although not in any way that he gets caught because no one believes the children) and the orphans are shipped off to live happily with their Uncle Monty.

Of course, it isn’t long before Uncle Monty’s new assistant arrives and the kids quickly discover that it’s Count Orloff in disguise. Orloff dispatches Monty and the kids are again shipped off (after Orloff escapes again) to live with their Aunt Josephine…can you see where this is now headed? The film doesn’t have the happy ending one would find in a typical children’s film…but it does have a very satisfying one that sets up a continuation of adaptations of the books.

The story is one of the best types of children’s stories as it doesn’t talk down to children and is rather dark, yet does manage to send a rather positive message. It is also the type of children’s story that adults should thoroughly enjoy as it works on many levels. In my research on the books, I’ve discovered that the film adapts the first three and that further books continue the pattern of the orphans winding up in a new living arrangement and then Orloff shows up before long in a disguise to try and get the money or kill the children or both. It will be interesting to see how any further films continue this pattern.

Jim Carrey stars as Count Orloff and it gives him the opportunity to mug, overact and prance about on screen like he usually does. Meryl Streep and Billy Connolly also give good performances as the other doomed guardians of the children. But it is the naturalness of the three child actors that keeps things moving along nicely. If these children weren’t believable as people who survived a tragedy, the entire film would have easily fallen apart. Jude Law provides the voice of Lemony Snicket (who is an amazing narrator of these tales…both witty and informative without being saccharine and clichéd).

The movie, like life, explains how we must find the strength to survive what tends to be one unfortunate event after another. Savor the good moments because they are what will give you that strength. Look to family carefully because while they are supposedly there to give you the strength, not all of them can be there all the time and some of them are there for their own purposes. And always, always listen to children…because they will always, surely be listening to you.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another review (probably Ocean’s Twelve or Spanglish).

Be seeing you

Vacation in Napa

So…it’s been a while…and now we’re on vacation in Napa…

It’s been a crazy year between the house renovations that don’t seem to end (we’ve been gone 24 hours and they’ve slipped another week behind schedule…grr) and rolling from one community theater show into another pretty much since March with barely a break along the way…

And now…for those of you who haven’t already heard through the grapevine…Natasha is pregnant. The baby is due somewhere around June 19, 2005. We’ve seen three images of the baby so far and surprisingly it’s rather camera shy (the last time, just this past week before leaving for Napa, it would turn and wave us away every time the sonogram came into view). We’re both very excited…and now we have excuses to whip the workmen into going faster and to quit community theater for a while if need be (and I may need to as the frustration level with the group I’m Vice President of doesn’t seem to wane even with forward progress).

Anyway…so that’s the big news…

While we’re taking a break here in sunny, foggy and chilly Napa (sure it’s a warmer 58 degrees than the 18 degrees we left in…but it still feels cold), we’re going to be catching up on a number of movies currently in theaters (or just opening in theaters).

So while today brings you a rather short piece, tomorrow will bring you a review of Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events…followed by quite possibly Ocean’s Twelve, Meet the Fockers, The Phantom of the Opera, Spanglish, Sideways and Finding Neverland. So until then…

Be seeing you